San Francisco, CA - Frameline29, the 29th San Francisco International LBGT Film Festival, will run June 16-26 at the historic Castro Theatre, Victoria Theatre and Roxie Cinema in San Francisco, and at Oakland's Parkway Theater. The Festival is known for showcasing an impressive number of local filmmakers' works, and this year is no exception. Of the 60 films made by Bay Area filmmakers, 12 are feature-length, including four world-premiere documentary screenings. The rich Bay Area filmmaking community plays a pivotal role in making the Festival the oldest and largest LGBT film festival in world.

Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker's SCREAMING QUEENS: THE RIOT AT COMPTON'S CAFETERIA documents the pre-Stonewall San Francisco riots transgender prostitutes and gay hustlers waged against police harassment. BOTH is Lisset Barcellos' film about a stuntwoman named Rebeca Duarte who discovers her gender identity has been manipulated by both her parents and her doctors. HEALING SEX is a docudrama by filmmaker Shar Rednour that shows real men and women healing from abuse and trauma. Keith Wilson introduces us to LESBIAN GRAND-MOTHERS FROM MARS in a documentary that showcases two down-to-earth lesbians who make a three-month, cross-country bicycle trip to rally support for gay marriage.

Other Frameline29 features by local filmmakers include Jenni Olson's THE JOY OF LIFE, to be released theatrically this summer by Frameline Distribution. Olson's provocative, personal film addresses the issue of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. This sensitive documentary is a tribute to former Frameline Festival Director Mark Finch, who ten years ago took his life by jumping from the bridge.

Karen Everett's WOMEN IN LOVE is a personal account of a circle of lesbian friends in San Francisco as they navigate their love lives. LIFE IN A BOX, from director Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, introduces three men who fall in love and travel the United States in a camper, leaving behind everything they knew to find true love and infinite possibilities. Pam Doré's ("Mr. Pam") documentary EXPOSED is a behind-the-scenes exposé of the making of a Colt Studio porn masterpiece. YO SOY ASÍ, by Joui Turandot, takes viewers to Santiago, Chile, where transgender Karina works as a hair salon owner and struggles with the hardships her gender identity raises. One of the more provocative documentaries, Luke Woodward's ENOUGH MAN is a groundbreaking and explicit documentary/pornography hybrid dealing with body image, relationships, and sex from the perspective of nine FTM transmen and their partners.

The Festival continues to be a successful venue for showcasing up-and-coming talented Bay Area filmmakers. The ever-popular Girls by the Bay and Boys by the Bay shorts programs promise to be as irreverent, sexy, intelligent, and provocative as ever.

Monica Enriquez directs three Latina filmmakers to explore the creative process in the experimental documentary A PLACE TO BEGIN; MIRROR, by Kimberly Alvarenga, is a true story about a girl who accidentally walks into a lesbian bar; Ana Lazo's DEAR OLD MAN is a lesbian's recollection of her grandfather when she lived in El Salvadore; OUR LIFE, A HIDDEN LIFE, by Alexa Inkeles, depicts Brazil's largest queer rights group; Maria Breaux gives us Maggie, who shows up at Nora's door for an unexplained interview in FAITH-BASED CHARITY; award-winning director Mary Guzman shows us what happens when kisses get too perilous in DANGEROUS KISSES; local performance artists and directors Tara Jepsen and Beth Lisick direct and star in DIVING FOR PEARLS, about Carole and Mitzi who play performance artists brainstorming new raw material; and Laurie Koh's BETWEEN THE LINES illustrates the unorthodox methods a freelance writer resorts to upon learning her editor is both queer and looking to date.

Two brothers discover all is not what it appears when it comes to matters of the heart in Scott Boswell's KATYDID; directors David Cutler and Mark Ewert give us twin sexologists who must do research for their porn film in PORNO BONDAGE; C.H.A.M.P., by Eric Smith, reveals how a trip to a medical marijuana club becomes a posthumous gesture; Michael Wallin's TO HOLD A HEART sees two men, diametrically opposed in age and culture, find each other; internationally acclaimed poet Thom Gunn is the subject of Rudy Lemcke's THOM GUNN-DOUBLE PORTRAIT; the Bay Bridge is the target of one man's metaphors in Mark McCormick's ABRIDGED; Elizebeth Chavez explores memories and the love that takes place between two men in KISSES THAT MOVE YOU; Jo J. Barker's REMOVAL finds Andrew trying to rid his finder of the reminder of his ex; PORNO BONDAGE researchers now must inspect a sex club in GLORY HOLE; and in Billy Clift's THE FAIRY TALE, a gay king is forced to find his heart after he loses everything else.

Local performance artists Peaches Christ, Heklina, and Squeaky Blonde will be on hand Sunday, June 19, for the not-to-be-missed program Peaches Christ at the Castro and Her Tran-ilogy of Terror. This bawdy, late-night trilogy of hilariously horrific cinema, by Ms. Christ's alter-ego Joshua Grannell will include SEASON OF THE TROLL, in which Peaches Christ and Heklina must hire a nurse to aid Martiny after a cheese overdose; A NIGHTMARE ON CASTRO STREET, in which the aforementioned ladies help their girlfriend Squeaky Blonde get sober; then see for yourself what happens when Martiny surpasses Peaches Christ in popularity in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PEACHES CHRIST? In keeping with the outrageous, Frameline29 is putting the spotlight on San Francisco's most popular club-Trannyshack. Three local filmmakers' document-aries, Sasha Aicken's BLOOD, SWEAT, AND GLITTER and Sean Mullens' and Deena Davenport's TRANNYSHACK, both pay tribute to Trannyshack, the infamous South of Market club. Aicken's film high- lights the out-of-this-world "drag" competition known as the 2004 Miss Trannyshack pageant, while the latter film focuses on the performers within the club, providing a literal stage to see firsthand what happens inside this notoriously raucous club. Yet the film also extends a figurative stage upon which insightful interviews with performers reveal rather poignant truths.

A wide range of performance art exists here in the Bay Area, and Frameline29 helps these artists shine bright. Local filmmaker Justin Kelly gives peace a chance during a 'dance-in' in a San Francisco hotel in the video DOUBLE FANTASY II, and he also provides another music video for Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes in STRIP MALL GLASS; Katastrophe is a young, local FTM whose transition from butch lesbian to straight male is identifiable in the making her HELLA HOS video, directed by Ricky Lee; THE SEXY STUFF is Phyllis Christopher's moving gallery of photographic images that document the lesbian sexual revolution in 1990s San Francisco; Sarah Millett delivers a short retrospective from her stream of emotions regarding gender in GENDER PAINS; in SIGMUND FREUD: PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOANALYST, by Kami Chisholm, features the renowned analyst and his patients who are all well-known dolls and puppets; and KARMA, by Michael La Rocco, which focuses on the struggles and triumphs of five San Francisco performance artists who unite as the City's only residential queer/trans cabaret club.

Documentaries from local filmmakers pay tribute to relevant LGBT history. Michael La Rocco's AIN'T NO TIME LIKE THE RIGHT TIME examines how a lesbian couple manages after the California Supreme Court voids their marriage; Antonia Kao's PUP captures two Christian leathermen as they prepare for the Second International Puppy contest-a leather title contest for human pups and their handlers; gay parents in Kentucky deal with the effects of a Constitutional ban on gay marriage in Gretchen Hildebran's OUT IN THE HEARTLAND; Joe Hullinger follows a lesbian couple from marriage in San Francisco to reception in Napa Valley in LORI & CATHY GET MARRIED; Hayward's annual gay prom is the subject of Lisa Bertolini's PROM NIGHT; and RAISING THE ROOF, by Veronica Selver, is an amazing testament to the pioneering women in the 1970s who traded caps and gowns for hardhats and overalls and formed an all-female carpenter ensemble.

Local lesbian filmmakers target the unexpected: Allie Sultan's DAMAGE addresses an awkward freshman who finds hope in the most unlikely places; and Pam DorŽ's DAY ONE finds Ruby, a sexy executive, looking forward to a perfect first date until she wakes up with an unexpected friend.

Frameline29's Latin-themed feature films by local artists include BOTH, by Lisset Barcellos, a film about a stuntwoman who discovers her sexual history has been manipulated by both her parents and her doctors, and Joui Turandot's YO SOY ASÍ that tells the story of young transgender hair salon owner who struggles with issues related to gender identity in Santiago, Chile. Short films by and about Latino/Latina culture include A PLACE TO BEGIN, MIRROR, DEAR OLD MAN, OUR LIFE, A HIDDEN LIFE, and KISSES THAT MOVE YOU.

Frameline29 delivers an impressive selection of features and shorts with African American themes or by black filmmakers: SCREAMING QUEENS: THE RIOT AT COMPTON'S CAFETERIA and YO SOY ASÍ. Short films include REMOVAL; Tamara Rahman's NO MATTER WHAT, an experimental short that touches upon the conflicting feelings and emotions related to sexual abuse by women to other women; PLANE GIRLS, by Anne Marie Luger, that depicts three out lesbian pilots who work for male-dominated U.S. commercial airlines; Debra Wilson's JUMPIN' THE BROOM: THE NEW COVENANT, in which African American LGBT couples discuss their relationships in light of the gay marriage movement, and KARMA, by Michael La Rocco.

Jen Gilomen's IN MY SHOES-STORIES OF YOUTH is a youth-created film that touches upon both African American and Latino/Latina influences as it addresses the challenges and blessings youth with LBGT parents face, including the children's role in the movement toward same-sex marriage.

Local filmmakers' short films that offer Asian American-themes: QUID PRO QUO, by Natasha Brinkso, in an experimental conversation that reveals recurring themes of betrayal and misunderstanding; HOW FLUT-TERING is Ji Sung Kim's Super 8 frolic about two girls who flirt for adventure like a snake meeting a butterfly; BETWEEN THE LINE is Laurie Koh's tale of how a freelance writer goes to unorthodox methods to express the crush she has on her editor ; LAST FULL SHOW is Mark V. Reyes' story about a teenage boy and an older man who learn a painful lesson in forbidden love after meeting at an underground Manila movie theater; DON'T FENCE ME IN: MAJOR MARY AND THE KAREN REFUGEES FROM BURMA, by Ruth Gumnit, is a captivating portrait of 70-year-old freedom fighter Major Mary and her people's struggle for self-determination

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Frameline29 -- the 29th San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival -- is the oldest and largest event of its kind in the world, and will screen June 16-26, 2005. Frameline29 screens in San Francisco at the Castro Theatre (429 Castro St.), the Roxie Cinema (3117 16th St.), the Victoria Theatre (2961 16th St.) and in Oakland at the Parkway Theater (1834 Park Blvd). Festival passes are currently on sale to Frameline members. Tickets go on sale to Frameline members on Friday, May 27, 2005. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 3, 2005. For more information, please call 925.866.9559 or visit www.Frameline.org.

Frameline29 is presented by Frameline, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and furthering its visibility by supporting and promoting a broad array of cultural representations and artistic expression in film, video, and other media art.